"We're rounding 'em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way."

That was Donald Trump holding forth on 60 Minutes last night how his administration will deport 11 to 12,000,000 "illegal immigrants."

Also, to show that he'll be a president with style, and class, we learned that the wall he intends to build along the entire length of the US Southern border with Mexico will be "a real wall. It'll be a wall that works. It'll actually be a wall that will look good, believe it or not. 'Cause what they have now is a joke. They're--they're ugly, little and don't work."  Also, "it's not going to be very expensive."

Underscoring the utter stupidity of this proposal is the fact that the population Trump proposes to uproot and return to their countries of origin is about the same as the State of Ohio.  That is to say, 11.5 million people.

With few exceptions, anyone in this country illegally who is apprehended by immigration authorities has a right to contest his "removal" (the term of art for deportation since 1996) in immigration court. And, in proper cases, even people with final orders of removal have rights to contest them if they can establish they will be persecuted in their home countries. (In the last two years I won two such cases).

Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that our immigration court system is broken. To cite one example, in Newark Immigration Court where I practice mostly there is a present backlog of 27,000 cases for five (soon to be four) immigration judges.  The immigration court system cannot cope with the number of cases that exist now, before Trump's planned exodus.

I can only assume that Trump's appeal to the anti-immigrant base of the Republican Party is, like everything he does, all for show. However, the discerning reader will see in his statements a bit of a Trojan horse on immigration. He seems to propose some form of "amnesty" by suggesting that "If they've done well they're going out and they're coming back in legally."  I guess it has to be that way because, according to Trump, "we're going to have a tremendous, beautiful, wide-open door. Nice big door. We want people to come into the country."

For Trump's "plan" to work there would have to be major changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act. I don't see that happening at all, at least with a Republican House of Representatives.

I would also add that there's no nice or humane way to break up families. Trump's scheme is unworkable, would be ruinously expensive, and is plainly contrary to current immigration law.  It's just not happening, though it is troubling to think he might actually believe he could pull it off.